- Tapes are due for a midlife crisis. Invented in 1963 by Lou Ottens and later introduced at the Funkausstellung radio exhibition in Berlin, compact cassettes would go on to become the most prevalent form of prerecorded music from 1983, when they began outselling records, until 1991, when the CD became the most popular medium.
Tapes were undeniably an iconic part of music culture for several decades during the height of physical musical sales and distribution. And as the technology turns 50 this month, is anyone paying attention?
I can honestly say that my friends and I have become more invested in cassette tapes, hell, we just put out two music releases only on tape and digitally. Tapes get a weird look from people that are already invested in their music scene or don't have an inkling of knowledge as to what Burger Records is.
...sigh... They're crap, though. They've always been crap. CD - 96dB Dynamic range, frequency response 20hz - 20kHz LP - 65dB dynamic range, frequency response 20hz - 20kHz Cassette - 55dB dynamic range, frequency response 35-12kHz You could get better out of them. I mean, shit. I owned a Nakamichi Dragon for a while. Finally dumped my Tascam a few years back. But cassettes are uber-poopy. They made sense for long car trips because there was literally no other choice.
Oh yes, I will never argue that cassettes are the way to go if you're looking for something that consistently sounds good. But when you're mostly broke college students who consume way too much music for anyone's health and have a desire to put out physical copies for cheap on top of digital distribution then cassettes start to look more desirable.
well, i mean, CDs aren't that expensive to manufacture. Not to mention you'd probably sell more since no one will have to stop and wonder whether or not that have a CD player at home or in their car.
Like the article says, there's a certain romance to them that i appreciate. But if romance was all i cared about i'd just go straight to vinyl. I've always seen cassettes as the ugly cousin of the audio player family. But, then again, i'm sure that's precisely the appeal for a lot of people.
I feel you. But damn who the hell still has a player? I mean, I still have an MZR-55, but that only because I've got some live recordings I made on that minidisc recorder and I haven't dumped 'em to pro tools yet. Anything on tape is available somewhere else better that's a lot more portable...
Not many people, and those that do overestimate how many people actually own one. It's a near-infuriating debate that I've had multiple times, with multiple people who believe too much in cassettes and cassette culture. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy them and the scenes that still use them but it's like talking to a wall when trying to convince people otherwise. This is mostly true. Some noise stuff is very hard to come by, as bfv points out. The same can be said for certain drone influenced music as well as some garage rock. Many bands and labels that primarily do local shows offer cassettes, so if you want something at a show at least you get a digital download card with it. T-Dog they're not too expensive (unlike LPs) and I should have noted this earlier but in our case we allow the bands to decide which media they'd like to be released on (CD or Tape). As far as selling them, there hasn't been a noticeable difference between the CDs and Tapes we've put out. I'd imagine that this is because of the scale (run of 50-100) and the fact that each purchase comes with a digital download.Anything on tape is available somewhere else better that's a lot more portable...
There are still tons of tape-only noise releases. I used to buy them, rip mp3s and give away the tape. I've lost patience for that now unless I really like the band already, so I just ignore most everything that doesn't also get a digital release. You can't package mp3s in chocolate or glue razor blades to them, but they're much more convenient.
I release most things on 8-track although occasionally I do a Reel to Reel or a Wax cylinder sales have not been good.